Guangzhou - Guilin Trip 2014 : Day 3

10 Oct 2014

After we had breakfast, around 8.00 am we checked out from the hotel and headed to Sanyuanli Leather Market. It opens at 9.00 am but we arrived there around 8.30 am. You can find many leather goods here and you may haggle with the sellers.

Some of the stores

We were given ample time here for shopping, about 2 hours but I was not interested so most of the time my dad and I just rested by the side while mama went off shopping.

Then, it was lunch time (eat again??!!). We had early lunch at 11.00 am because we need to catch our flight to Guilin around noon. So it was the same lunch place and outside the restaurant, there were some fruit peddlers. Most of us bought some cherries from them the day before, 20 Yuan for half kilo.

Buah bidara. You can see she is using penimbang zaman dulu-dulu

Flight from Guangzhou to Guilin took about 1 hour and we were served salted peanuts and mineral water. We got onto our bus around 4.15pm and by now I was sooooo hungry. I took a look at the packaging of the salted peanut, there was a halal logo and my dad said this can be eaten. So I ate the peanuts, and shared with my mom. Later, kitaorang kena sound dengan 'someone', dia kata ade orang yang degil, dah nasihat supaya jangan makan apa-apa snack by China Southern from Guangzhou to Guilin pasal tak halal ... tapi dah degil, nak buat caner kan. Kami rasa ralat la jugak, pasal ade tanda halal and jarang la dengar kacang tanah  digoreng dgn minyak babe. 

Tapi ni nak cite in advance, kitaorang pun made a mental note la, pasnih jgn makan la dlm flight tu walau lapar mcm mana pun kan. Sekali on the way back from Guilin to Guangzhou, the same flight served 2 biji roti to all passengers ... dahla kitaorang lapa gila, cume breakfast telur rebus je pukul 7 pagi dan takde lunch, sampai la the next meal dalam pukul 6.30 petang dlm flight ... bayangkan lapa dia mcm mana ... sekali the same 'someone' kata kat my mom, "eh, akak tak makan roti derang bagi ke tadi? laaaa.....kenapa pulak. rugi la akak. saya dah selamat makan dah pun." Adehh ... roti yang big possibility boleh ade lard dalam tu, takde logo halal di kotak, boleh pulak dimakan. salted peanuts tak boleh pulak. 

Ok, back to the story. Sampai-sampai, kita dibawa ke silk house. Tunaikan solat jamak di sini dan shopping here. After that, makan dinner di restaurant halal kepunyaan an indian. Later, kita checked in Vienna Hotel. 

Hotel ni ni 4 star, dan pwincess dapat bilik di tengah-tengah, dan sangat luas. Alhamdulillah. Wifi disediakan and the room is brighter compared to Euro Asia.

Room 505

Ade mixer shower as well as power shower

Guangzhou - Guilin Trip 2014 : Day 2

9 Oct 2014

Kita dikejutkan dengan wakeup call at 5.00 am untuk Subuh dan another call at 7.00 am for breakfast. After we had our breakfast at the hotel, we headed to Flower City Square. The weather was bright and sunny. Kat sini just bersiar-siar dan amek gambar di sekitar park.

Sesudah itu, kita bergerak menuju ke makam Saad Abi Waqas (di Huaisheng Mosque) yang dikenali sebagai penyebar syiar Islam di negara China. 

Wangi sangat sepanjang di kawasan perkuburan

Makam sahabat-sahabat yang sama-sama menyebarkan Islam

Makam Abi Waqas

Sebenarnya, pwincess rasa seriau jugak nak snap-snap gambar makam ni ... pulak tu upload lak dalam blog. tapi tengok ramai je yang buat, kita belasah je la. lagipun niat nak share memory bersama those yang belum berkesempatan nak ziarah ke sana. 

Next stop is Burning Cream Herbal Centre. Ini termasuk dalam government shop di mana rombongan diwajibkan untuk singgah at least 45 minutes ... pergh.This is not new, dulu mase trip Beijing/Shanghai/Suzhou jugak penah dibawa. There was a presentation of the products and later we were demonstrated how besi yang panas2 gile tu dipegang oleh orang dia, dan dia cpt2 sapu cream ni. after 25 minutes, dia suh rombongan pegang tangan dia yang as if nothing happened to him. Bao Li Fung cream size 100g 320 Yuan, yang kecik sket 50g ialah 200 Yuan. Nampaknya dah naik sket harga dari dulu. Later, dia ckp la yang kita ni sangat bertuah, because KEBETULAN ade professor tersohor di Beijing tu dtg buat lawatan kat centre tu dan baru je nak balik keesokan harinya. so for those yang nak free diagnosis from the professor boleh la ikut dia masuk bilik consultation. lepaih tu ... tau lah kena ketuk mcm mana kan ... heehehe. 

Lepas tu shopping time. Kalau dlm itinerary, katanye kita dibawak ke Haiyin Fabric Market. Tapi ni kat building tulis Highsun String & Cloth Market. Kita diberi masa 1 jam untuk shopping kain/cadar/alas meja kat sini.

Lepas dah shopping fabric, now it's lunch time..... kita dibawa ke restoran abdullah. kat sini makan best....

Dah kenyang, kita dibawa ke kedai jade. Kat sini pun government shop. As usual, presentation slides and later, katanye, nasib kita baik because boss dia (Andy) is around .... rombongan pakat mintak souvenir dari Andy ... tak sangka pulak dapat ... 

Akhir sekali, kita dibawa ke Beijing Road Walking Street untuk acara shopping. tapi hampeh gile. takde kedai menarik atau barang yang menarik minat kami. tatau la rombongan lain caner kan. Ader la 1 or 2 kedai jual baju dan kasut budak ... tgk2 kasut ade kulit babe ... emmph. 

Lastly kita gi makan dinner kat kedai malam sebelum tu dan balik otel untuk berehat.

Guangzhou - Guilin Trip 2014 : Day 1

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim ...

Lama dah tak update blog ni kan ... ni pun rasa malas bebenor nak update ... tapi kang takde dalam rekod pulak ... macam Batam Trip early this year...hehe .... punye la lama dalam draft ... tu pun tak habis2 mengarang kekekeke .....

Pwincess baru je balik dr Guangzhou - Guilin trip  ni ... sebelum terlupe pasal vacation ni, kena cepat-cepat blog about it. Trip ni actually dari awal tahun lagi berura-ura nak pergi ... tapi setakat cakap-cakap tanpa action .... ni dah 5 bulan pregnant haaa baru lah terkocoh-kocoh cari travel agent bagai. Honestly, I prefer to DIY your trip ... tapi memandangkan pwincess akan travel with a toddler and being pregnant dan Encik Mon tak ikut sekali, decision untuk join travel agent adalah yang terbaik buat masa ini ... that was what I thought ....so this trip, adult fare is RM2,799 dan little button kalau tak silap RM2,612 ... kami travel bersama my parents ... so amek bilik berdua for each pair since we were told that hotel di sana usually 3-star (sempit). 

8 Oct 2014

This trip was from 8 Oct - 12 Oct 2014 ... 5 hari 4 malam dan penerbangan adalah dengan China Southern Airline. Flight from KL to Guangzhou approximately 3 hours and 50 minutes. Food served was halal .... we were given a choice either fish rice or chicken noodle. I chose the latter for myself and fish rice for little button. Food was not that yummy ... but I ate it all anyway. Rezeki jangan ditolak lah katakan....Sampai-sampai je Baiyun Airport dalam pukul 2 petang lebih ... and nak claim baggage bagai, dalam kul 3 lebih gak la nak naik bas. Baiyun airport sangat besar .... berpeluh gak lah nak berjalan dalam tu. 

Cuaca di Guangzhou sangatlah teramat panas - 31 degrees!! Terkejut hokey .... because sebelum pergi dah buat la research ... it should be autumn now ... and suhu dalam 19-22 degrees cenggitu .... just nice lah, macam sejuk-sejuk aircond kita kat sini. makcik-makcik semua yang dah siap bawak jaket tebal semua pack balik masuk dlm beg. 

Lagi satu yang mengejutkan ialah jalan sana sini di Guangzhou adalah teramat congested .... penat weih. Tour guide kata we are very lucky because they just ended their national holidays, from 1 Oct - 7 Oct ... during those days, everywhere adalah sangat packed. adoyai ... kalau ni pun dah jammed, caner lah ye mase national holidays derang tu kan. Our first stop in Guangzhou is Huaisheng Mosque ... dalam perjalanan nak menuju ke Huaisheng Mosque ... ader pulak orang tak tahan nak ke toilet .... so terpaksa drop dia kat hotel tepi-tepi jalan tu dan kita terpaksa mengharungi balik jem utk buat satu pusingan. huhu. 

Last-last, sampai pun di Huaisheng Mosque. We all performed our Zuhur-Asar prayer here ... cantik masjidnya. Ada unsur-unsur budaya Cina di sini. This is said to be one of the oldest mosques in the world ... and is also called the Light Tower Mosque since the tower once had a beacon light on top for ships. 

Rata-rata blog kata please beli satay kambing yang dijual di area masjid ni ... unfortunately, tak nampak sorang pun penjual satay kambing ke, ayam ke, atau apa2 jenis satay pun. 

Byk kedai menjual makanan halal di luar perkarangan masjid Huaisheng

Next, we went to Yuexia Park or also known as the "5 Rams Sculpture". We were told by the tour guide that this 5 Rams Sculpture is a symbol of Guangzhou. If you have been to this place, it means you have been to  Guangzhou. Legend has it that many thousands of years ago, the immortals had gifted the city with five lucky rams that turned into stone.

Entrance of Yuexia Park

The trademark of Guangzhou - 5 Rams Sculpture

After that we headed to a Muslim Restaurant for our dinner. By now, I felt really exhausted oh boy. Terdapat juga pilihan lawatan tambahan on that night : Pearl River Night Cruise (150 Yuan=USD 25=RM75). For those who opted not to join had to wait in the bus ... before everyone got to check into the hotel. 

Our cruise - Bank of Guangzhou

Scenery around the riverbank

Pearl River

Guangzhou Tower at night

The cruise took 1 hour and we were served bottomless chinese tea. Dari boat boleh nampak macam bangunan tinggi pencakar langit di sekeliling ... dan bridge as well as Guangzhou Tower ... cantik dia berubah-ubah lampu warna-warni every minute. Ada juga photographer yang khabarnya mengambil gambar FOC .... lepas snap, dia bagi slip, dan kita kena collect the hard copy later ... sekali mase nak collect, kena bayar 20 Yuan utk sekeping gambar .... hahaha ... semua orang sudah terkena la beb ~

By now, mmg terserlah la kepenatan semua orang .... so kita pun pergi check in otel. We stayed in Euro Asia Hotel. Bilik pwincess adalah corner lot, alhamdulillah luas sangat-sangat. This hotel provided kettle, hair dryer, TV and lots of power plug but no fridge. As you can see, the room is lacking in brightness.

dekat hujung kiri tu pun ade space lagi, study table and such

That's it for Day 1 !
Night night ~

Natural ingredients to replace chemical cleaners

I was watching tv aimlessly one day when i accidentally watched this segment in star king series. This lady who has been a homemaker for 17 years shared a few tips to clean your kitchen using natural ingredients.

1. Water used for blanching spinach

The water that is usually thrown away after blanching the spinach turned out to be useful,it seems. It can be used to clean the grime and oil at the stove. Just dip a cloth or cleaning towel in the water and wipe clean the stove. She said spinach is a natural detergent. She even demonstrated it in the show..,the stove was very very dirty in the beginning oh boy, but she cleaned it with the towel dipped in the spinach water effortlessly and the stove was shining and sparkling after that!

2. Apple peels

Sometimes you cook and accidentally burnt your pot so you end up with a black (burnt) pot and no matter how long you soak the pot in the water or scrub it,the soot is there. So the easy way to remove the soot is to boil water in the burnt pot and throw in some apple peels into it. Once the water is boiled,discard everything and wash the pot as you normally do. The peels contain citric acid so they help in removing the soot. 

3. Potato peels

Don't throw away your potato peels after this! They can be used to scrub the dirt and grime in your sink....your sink will also have some sparkle if scrubbed using the potato peels. But i guess you would need big chunk of potato peels to use for scrubs. 

4. Eggshell and water

Usually there will be some dirt stuck at your blender near the blades (she demonstrated using a hand blender) and the dirt is difficult to wash even using toothbrush. So just pour in some water and throw in eggshell,and blend them as if you are making an eggshell juice....and voila!the dirt is all gone!eggshell also can be used instead of salt to wash your children's water bottle...pour water and eggshell into the bottle,give it a good shake and there you have it...a clean bottle for your little one. The eggshell also can be an amazing fertilizer!wow so many uses!

5. Soju

Well,i can't use this at home but should it be useful for any of my blog readers out there, why not....just use soju to clean your cooker hoods and they will become shiny as brand new!

This lady also shared her diy germicide but i missed this part...partly because i don't actually plan to make this at home. One of the audience brought along a device to read germ level and put it on the chopping board. Germ level was 1076....and after washing the board with her formulation,after an hour,the germ lecel has reduced and it was 84....her germicide formulation can also be used as dishwashing liquid...just add some flour and it's ready to be used!she showed her hands and said she never used glove to wash the dishes yet her hand is smooth...the last time she used a chemical to clean her kitchen was 13 years ago!

*all images from google*

Kerabu ikan kembung

The supermarket around here opens as early as 7.30 am and that is when you can get all the fresh produce and there are more choices to choose from. 

Sometimes you can get 'rare items' sold in supermarkets (unless you go to the wet market) such as fresh fish roe. We bought once,it's about $4.00 and there were 4 big pieces....and we finished eating it up in 2 days. Actually i ate them alone! The mere thought of it makes me just salivating. 

We bought 2 pre packed containers of ikan kembung this morning. One seldom see ikan kembung sold in supermarkets later than in the evening...in fact most of the time they are already snapped out by noon. 

Coincidentally,i just came across a blog which listed down a few recipes of kerabu ikan kembung the night before,just before going to sleep. I've never seen or tasted kerabu ikan kembung before so when the fish just came in,i couldn't wait to try the recipe. 

Recipe from http://wanhaliza.blogspot.sg/2013/04/sayur-kerabu.html?m=1

Kerabu Sayuran

Bahan
10 tangkai kacang botol ] *i used kacang panjang
2 kuntum bunga kantan ]
3 tangkai daun kesum ] hiris/mayang halus *not in stock
10 pokok daun selom ] *replaced with daun ketumbar
5 tangkai cili merah ]
1 labu bawang besar ]
1 cawan taugeh
1/2 cawan kelapa [goreng ] *i used toasted dessicated coconut 
2 ekor ikan kembung [bakar dan ambil isinya]
garam
gula

Bahan Sambal
5 tangkai cil merah ]
5 tangkai cili api ] tumbuk halus
sedikit belacan ]
5 biji limau kasturi [ambil jus]

Cara
1. Gaulkan semua bahan sambal dengan kelapa, isi ikan, garam dan gula.
2. Masukkan sayuran s dan kacau supaya semua rata.
3. Rasakan masam dan masinnya.
4. Hidangkan.

Yummy!

Kerabu Sotong & suhun - inspired by Chef Wan

Pembaca setia dan pengkomen nombor satu blog pwincess dee, tidak lain dan tidak bukan, adalah Encik Mon. Terima kasih diucapkan :)

Entry kali ni khas untuk Encik Mon yang memberi feedback yang dia tak boleh nak tinggalkan komen sejak dua menjak pwincess dee menggunakan blogger apps tu. Kirenye entry kali ni ditulis menggunakan laptop yang uzur muzur tu lahhh .... sebenarnya, pwincess dee dah perasan ade bbrp function kat blog tak seberapa pwincess dee ni dah mula malfunction ... tapi apakan daya, takde masa dan kepakaran nak belek dan rectify satu-satu .... lagipun takde follower sangat pun .... kalau betul2 takleh bear dah .... kita carik alternative lain insya Allah 

cheh chehh .... intro macam ucapan menang award la pulak kan .... hiks ... udah la tu. 

I mentioned in my previous entry that the kerabu sotong at 1 Market by Chef Wan adalah sangat superb....maka, pwincess was inspired by him to make my very first kerabu sotong....pulak tu, bahan semua ada .... senang la sikit kan nak memprojek. Encik Mon rajin belikan pwincess sotong, although dia tak dapat nak makan sangat sotong tu. Sotong sini dalam $3.50 ++ dapatlah 4 ekor size M. Pernah tu, beli baby octopus, $4 dapat sepeket penuh .... kenyang pwincess makan sorang2 a few times. cuma sayang tatau caner nak buat chuka iidako ... kalau tak, dah boleh try test dahh....

Kerabu sotong ade banyak version .. pwincess cuba resipi Kak Hanieliza ...as pasted below, with a few of my own notes for refence :

Kerabu sotong & suhun

500 g sotong sederhana besar

50g suhun (direndam dan dicelur dengan air panas)

3 sb jus limau nipis

1 sb sos ikan (boleh digantikan dengan kicap + 1 sk kiub ikan bilis dihancurkan)

garam (jika perlu)

2 pokok daun ketumbar (racik kasar)

Bahan Tumbuk:

3 tangkai cili api

3 tangkai cili merah

2 ulas bawang putih

Bahan Mayang:

2 kuntum bunga kantan

1 labu bawang besar

1 batang timun kecil

3 tangkai cili merah

Cara:

1. Sotong dibersihkan, dibuang kulit dan dipotong bulat.

2. Masukkan sotong dalam kuali dan masak hingga keluar airnya.

3. Masukkan semua bahan dan dalam mangkuk dan gaul mesra.

4. Rasakan masam masin manis nya.

Nota: 

1. Masa masak sotong jangan dimasukkan air nanti sotong tu akan jadi berkuah. Ini kerana sotong mengeluarkan air.

2. Lepas step 2, toskan sotong dan air rebusan boleh digunakan untuk goreng mihun dsb.

3. Refrigerate before serving. Sedap makan as cold dish nyumss.

Pwincess guna baby octopus untuk kerabu sotong kali ni. ada yang pwincess potong walaupun dia dah memang bite size, dan ada jugak yang dibiarkan sekor sekor macam tu. saje tanak amek gambar baby octopus tu pasal masih teringat cite ngarut yang circulate kat internet about a granny mengandungkan baby octopus lepas makan live octopus ke something like that. how gross.

Birthday celebration at 1 Market by chef wan

Penatnye type...last2 ghaib. Ni malas nak gune blogger apps nih...laptop pulak tgh tak sihat and nmpk mcm mmg takkan sihat balik...tu yg lama x blogging tuh...hmmph. 

Anyway, Encik mon treated me to a dinner buffet at 1 market by chef wan for my birthday this year. 1 market by chef wan is the first ever restaurant opened up by the celebrity chef and it is located at plaza singapura. 

It got me very excited. Initially i thought the restaurant concept was somewhat similar to marche's,but it's the typical buffet style with several food stations. 

When we arrived,there was a long queue. Luckily we made our reservations earlier. There were so many choices of food but i really enjoyed the cold seafood range and since it's dinner,the oysters were there too. Ada alaskan crab,poached salmon and so many more!

my first encounter with this siput....

We didnt know what the texture should be like,since it was the first time we eat it.,,,isi nya pecah2 dan susah sgt nk kua dari shell. Later we discovered in batam that the texture shouldnt be like that...

Little button also enjoyed a variety of food that night...

I also adore the kerabu station. The kerabu sotong is to die for!love it love it. I also love the sambal belacan here. 

There are also live stations where you can place your order and the chef/personnel will prepare it for you. One thing though,the person manning the spring roll station was so.... Slow that we had to wait quite some time for our spring rolls ...

The restaurant is located at level 4 and the nursing room,washroom is just nearby and a surau is provided. 

Us- digesting the food...

Thank u so much mon,love you~